ART
JUNE 5 –12 Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series of compact art reviews.
“Duayne Hatchett: Form, Pattern and Invention”
Through Aug. 30 in Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave.; 878-6011 or yournewburchfieldpenney. org
The glimmering east gallery at the still nascent Burchfield Penney Art Center has taken on a spectacular new look with the mounting of this epic retrospective of prolific local sculptor Duayne Hatchett. Sprawled out across the BPAC’s huge gallery and spilling into the upstairs reception space, the show takes visitors on a wild and constantly intriguing journey through the artist’s six-decade-long career. And the gigantic trove of work, in all its range, lyrical brilliance and technical facility, has plenty of room to breathe.
We begin with Hatchett’s abstract expressionist amalgams in ruddy iron, which call to mind the pioneering work of David Smith. But soon enough, Hatchett’s artistic trajectory leads him into the territory of geometric forms, where he thrives. His geometric sculptures, meticulously wrought constructions of stainless steel, bronze and aluminum, play curious tricks on the eye and challenge the mind to think about space in new ways.
The show also includes a fascinating selection of custom-made tools Hatchett has employed to produce his well-ordered and provoking pieces, an inclusion that points up the artist’s intense and ever-evolving dedication to his art.
Some highlights include Hatchett’s gorgeous 1992 acrylic painting “Royal,” a swirling canvas that plays with shape and hue to evoke both the chaos and order of rippling water droplets. Hatchett’s galvanized steel sculptures, among them the explosive “Essex” and two undulating columns, are also treats for the imagination.
This retrospective definitely ranks as one of the year’s must-see exhibitions. It fills the BPAC’s largest space with tremendous accomplishment and undeniable grace.
“Tom Holt: Test for Echo”
Through Sept. 13 in the Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University; 286-8200 or www.niagara.edu/cam Nintendo games, cartoon characters and a gritty urban vibe populate this jewel of a show at the Castellani Art Musuem, which has chosen painter, sketcher and graffiti artist Tom Holt for the latest of its “TopSpin” series featuring mid-career local talent.
The centerpiece of the show is a masterfully executed wall-length graffiti mural that incorporates a hallucinogenic video projection. It’s spray-painted directly onto the wall in popping colors, and features any number of difficult-to-decipher tags, a foreboding skull-and-bones figure and a contorted cartoon head spouting some kind of viscous pink liquid. It’s trippy in the best of ways, though a little strange to see on the inside of this respectable Western New York gallery. One longs to see it on the side of some otherwise glum abandoned warehouse.
The rest of the show features Holt’s more contained skills as an illustrator in a variety of paintings, sketchbooks and mixed-media constructions, as well as thematic tendencies toward the humorous and the grotesque. One piece, which sits above a nicely rendered painting of a pair of headphones, contains a small axe enclosed in a glass box. The box is printed with a label that reads “Find Work Ethic.”
It seems Holt, a former curator at the Burchfield Penney and now a full-time artist, has had no problem finding his own. Here’s hoping Holt’s vibrant work pops up more frequently from now on.
“Mark McLoughlin: Double Incidence”
Through June 13 in Sugar City, 19 Wadsworth St.; (917) 913-6302
In the heart of noisy Allentown sits one of the more tranquil and sublime art experiences Buffalo has seen since James Turrell’s installation at the Albright- Knox Art Gallery came down last year. Mark McLoughlin, an artist new to Buffalo whose work has been quietly appearing at such venues as Hallwalls’ “Artists and Models” and Squeaky Wheel’s “Peepshow,” is a dispenser of visual curiosities through low-tech means.
McLoughlin’s instrument of choice for this show, and for much of his work, is the ancient camera obscura. The simple optical device consists of a darkened space — anything from a small box to an entire room—illuminated by a tiny hole, through which light passes to create a twilight-tinged, upsidedown image of what’s happening on the outside of the space.
In the storefront of Sugar City, a rad new multidisciplinary art space launched recently by a rag-tag group of 20-something artists, McLoughlin has created three pinhole camera installations. The first, a live, panoramic image of Wadsworth Street, is projected onto a curved wall. Once your eyes have adjusted to the space, looking at the surreal projection as traffic whizzes by or pedestrians walk their dogs past the storefront is a beautiful way to while away 20 minutes.
In the same space, McLoughlin has focused another pinhole opening on a certain section of the sky. Around 3:30 each afternoon, viewers can watch the muted sun pass through the projection, creating a kind of wacky moonscape that evolves in front of your eyes. Incredibly cool stuff. •
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